Posted on 10/18/2003 5:15:15 AM PDT by dennisw
October 17, 2003 No.592
Iraqi Daily: Saddam Ordered Training of Al-Qa'ida Members
The independent Iraqi weekly Al-Yawm Al-Aakher reveals details on the training of Al-Qa'ida members operating under the orders of Saddam's Presidential Palace two months before the September 11 attacks. The following are excerpts from the article: [1]
Training At Nahrawan and Salman Pak
"An Iraqi officer (L) [only identified by initial] tells us that one day a Land Cruiser belonging to the Personal Security Force (Al-Amn Al-Khass, responsible for the protection of Saddam Hussein) arrived and a senior officer from the Presidential Palace stepped out of it. He was one of those officers who used to stand behind Saddam, which means that he was one of [his] personal bodyguards. After a two-hour meeting with a select group of officers at the Special Forces School, we were informed that we would have dear guests, and that we should train them very well in a high level of secrecy - not to allow anyone to approach them or to talk to them in any way, shape, or form.
"A few days later, about 100 trainees arrived. They were a mixture of Arabs, Arabs from the Peninsula [Saudi Arabia], Muslim Afghans, and other Muslims from various parts of the world. They were divided into two groups, the first one went to Al-Nahrawan and the second to Salman Pak, and this was the group that was trained to hijack airplanes. The training was under the direct supervision of major general (M. DH. L) [only identified by initials] who now serves as a police commander in one of the provinces. Upon the completion of the training most of them left Iraq, while the others stayed in the country through the last battle in Baghdad against the coalition forces."
Al-Qa'ida Group Headed by a Saudi Cleric
"I remember that the leader of the group was a Saudi cleric called [Muhammad], who was a fervent and audacious individual and did not require much training. He was highly skilled, and could fire accurately at a target while riding a motorcycle. Additionally, he used to deliver fiery sermons calling for Jihad and for fighting the Americans anywhere in the world. Surprisingly, this man's picture, alongside the commander of the Special Forces School, was televised several times before the beginning of the war and the fall of the former regime."
Training Supervised by the Fedayeen Command
"...The Fedayeen command [Fedayeen Saddam under Uday's command] supervised the 100 Al-Qa'ida fighters directly, to the extent that senior Fedayeen officers visited them constantly and inspected them almost daily, especially during the final days when they transferred them, late at night in two red trucks that belonged to the Ministry of Transportation, to an undisclosed destination. I witnessed that with my own eyes because on that day I was the duty officer."
Al-Qa'ida Members Participated in Battles Against U.S. Forces
"A few days before the beginning of the last war, we were surprised to see the same people whom we had trained return to the Special Forces School and with them 100 additional individuals. The high command asked us to re-train them and to divide them into several groups to be deployed in various areas in Iraq.
"Truth be told, most of these individuals competed to go to war and to the front lines. [2] Therefore, under pressure they participated immediately in extremely fierce battles that astonished the Iraqis and the Americans."
With the 11th Division in the Area of Al-Kifl
"On April 5, 2003 orders were issued to send these individuals to the battle front immediately. About 100 of them were sent to the 11th company division in Nasiriya. And for the sake of history I will say that this division's endurance was due to some formidable fighters, the commanding officer and members of Al-Qa'ida who fought with intensity and brutality that are seldom matched, while they were praising Allah: Allahu Akbar… Allahu Akbar… What I mean by that are the violent battles that took place along the rapid highway for seventeen consecutive days and forced the Americans to withdraw and re-enter from the industrial area of Nasiriya … As for the groups which went to Al-Kifl, they participated in extremely brutal battles. Not many of them retreated and they sacrificed their lives to Apache [helicopter] fire, amid the admiration of the Iraqis and the Americans themselves. The proof is that some of them blew themselves up in the midst of American forces."
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[1] Al-Yawm Al-Aakher (Iraq), October 16, 2003.
[2] According to the article, a number of the individuals also fought in Afghanistan: "Most of [the people] I talked to confirmed to me that they had come from Afghanistan and the Pakistani mountains, and that they were the ones who fought the Americans in Mazar Al-Sharif and Kabul. This was a true experience that they translated into the reality of the fierce battles in Iraq."
;-)
Hopefully an enterprising freeper has a collection of quotes from democrats stating emphatically that Saddam has/had no ties to al Qaeda.
If this is true, my guess is that by election time next year, this will all start to unravel. Probably the reason all this information is not out yet is because they are looking for undeniable proof to what they are finding. We are dealing with RATS after all, who will in no doubt spin the information against the administration.
If that is what's going on then let them take their time, but what ever, as of yet unreleased information they have should be made public by next year before election. we have not yet seeing what the rats are really capable of, that comes next year, when it will look like they are going to lose. We had better be ready for them.
And that undeniable proof still won't be good enough. The liberal press demands that a Republican admininstration have court-level proof before the President should be allowed to blow his nose, and even then that proof always turns out to not be good enough and/or a "lie".
But none of them had the slightest problem when Klinton was using the military as an international Meals-On-Wheels program for the whole world. They never demanded the slightest justification for bombing civilians in the Balkans for 73 days. What was the purpose of hitting powerplants, phone lines, and other utilities for 73 days, then immediately turning around and spending billions of dollars to replace the utilities that were bombed?
Among other things.
There is a reason the witch from Chappaqua has not been wailing about the war. She has stayed in the background. When the real news on Iraq FINALLY gets to the mainstream media outlets, the 10 current wannabees will be disgraced to the point that the RATs will beg and plead Hillary to jump into the field as their savior.
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